« November 2005 | Main | February 2006 »
January 30, 2006
Copenhagen Geek Dinner 2.0
And so to the Metrobar, site of the Copenhagen Geek Dinner 2.0 this past Friday (27th January 2006). There were some familiar faces from last time, some new (to me at least), and some from CGD 1.0 who were absent this time. Situated opposite the Metro station at Forum in Fredericksberg, the Metro Bar is a cosy, small bar which takes its name from its proximity to the Metro station : it used to be known as Cafe Sius. There's a separate dining section with seating for up to 40 people, where we sat for the two course dinner. We were served a very tender and tasty veal carpaccio on a bed of spinach for starters. The main course was a roll of lamb, flavoured with cumin, served with a salad of beans and sundried tomatoes and Dauphinoise potatoes, also very tasty. Drinks were on our own account after the Great Missing Cash debacle of CGD 1.0 in October. There's a fair selection of cocktails and bottled beers (that old 80's stalwart, Sol, and GB's FinAle) in addition to the usual Tuborg Green and Classic, and coffee. Unfortunately, not all the bottled beers were in stock, and I think the Hoegaarden got pretty depleted, too. Perhaps the only criticisms of the Metro Bar was the slightly uneven heating - there was a small gas heater in the dining section that was in binary mode : either 6,000K or off - and the poor selection of whiskies - no Lagavulin or Laphroaig (or similar) ... never mind.
I spent much of the dinner conversation talking to Thomas K of Toothless Tiger about some ideas for mobile social software that Johannes and I have. After dinner, people started to mingle a bit, and a few stragglers turned up, including Daniel Karpantschof. Once again, I didn't have a chance to talk to everyone before people started leaving, which was a bit frustrating. I did manage to chat to film-maker André from Malmö, who, due to his (by his own admission) poor navigation skills, had been quite surprised to find the place at all. André is a graduate of the Zen school of driving, apparently, because his car trips consist of a never-ending series of surprising incidental discoveries and rarely involve anything as mundane as actually arriving at the place he was headed for. I had a short chat with Michael from Odense, currently an intern in Copenhagen, with Camilla, a student originally from Bornholm (or was it Greenland?) who has just finished a project on corporate blogging, and is in the process of getting her own blog, and with Jesper, one of the e-mediators, about ... well, just stuff really. I was also rather insulting to Jacob Bøtter, but apparently I was very English about it, so that's OK. Drinking and frivolity ensued, including the rather surprising spectacle of mixed body parts (many of them apparently belonging to Daniel) being signed with a purple Letraset marker. I talked with him a bit and it turns out that he also works in the film industry, for Zentropa, I believe.
Around midnight our numbers had thinned sufficiently that we could adjourn to the main bar without swamping it completely, where we stayed the rest of the evening. I left around 3am, but the bar itself had closed, so I can't imagine that the five hard-boiled barflies I left behind stayed there for much longer ...
Photos here.
Once again, many thanks to Henri for organizational chutzpah. CGD 3.0 is already in the offing.
Posted by daen at 01:26 AM
Falco and Wolfgang
In this year of the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth, I was saddened to learn that another great Austrian composer, Falco, died in 1998 at the tragically early age of 40.
Falco is best remembered for that great kitsch hit from 1986, "Rock Me Amadeus". Detailed Wikipedia info here.
Posted by daen at 12:26 AM
January 29, 2006
Icicle
An icicle formed from a dripping gutter. Isn't nature wonderful?
Posted by daen at 12:08 AM
January 28, 2006
Warren Ellis : picanthropoid genius
Warren Ellis crafts graphic novels. Last week, his mum passed away. He writes on his blog about receiving a flower delivery from DC and Marvel comics:
Bone tired after being woken up by a flower delivery. I imagine the delivery girl was expecting a mourning family, rather than a naked 37-year-old man with most of his hair missing and a beard pointing in three different directions at once showing no more command of language than a mongoloid Neanderthal with an itchy arse and unexplained liver pains. You could see in her eyes the sudden stark fear of being clubbed, dragged in by her hair and impregnated with my gene-deficient and leg-waving primitive seed before being dismembered with a flint tool of some kind and lightly cooked over a makeshift campfire out back.
Why don't I own anything written by this man?
BTW, you could also do worse than listen to his Apparat Programmes for a cross section of indie artists.
Posted by daen at 11:43 PM
January 25, 2006
Aresa goes public
Aresa is a Danish company which made the news sometime back with a GM plant which turns red in the presence of explosives. This so-called BioSensor technology can be used, among other things, for the clearance of landmines.
Aresa today announced that they will be listing on the new First North alternative investment market here in Copenhagen.
First North, launched on 12th December 2005, currently only has one other company on it, Deadline Games. It'll be interesting to see how quickly, if at all, other companies join the exchange.
Posted by daen at 05:06 PM
January 11, 2006
Christianshavn evacuated because of lesbian affair?
A bomb scare in Christianshavn led to the rapid evacuation of the area, including Christianshavns Gymnasium (the high school). Politiken reports [in Danish], however, that the whole thing could allegedly be due to a case of domestic jealousy. Apparently, the man's girlfriend, a female boxer, is rumoured to have had an affair with another woman. Feeling somewhat put out by this, it seems the guy rather decided to ge teven by stupidly phoning the police to tell them that there were explosives in his (presumably ex- by now) girlfriend's white car. There weren't. Police have now arrested a man in connection with the bomb scare.
Posted by daen at 04:10 PM
Balloon over Botanical Gardens
A hot air balloon hovers above the trees in Copenhagen's Botanical Gardens ...
Taken 9 January 2006.
Posted by daen at 12:10 PM
January 09, 2006
Samorost 2
Samorost 2 is a strange game. Aliens have stolen your dog and your task is to recover Rover from the aliens' asteroid. There are a bunch of strange puzzles to solve, which together with the visuals and music make the game feel a bit like a cartoon version of Myst ...
There's a free version by way of a teaser, or for $9.90 you can buy another 5 levels.
You can also try out the original Samorost (where you have to divert a rogue asteroid from hitting your own home asteroid by solving another bunch of odd puzzles).
Incidentally, the publisher of Samorost and Samorost 2, Amanita Design, have also made an animation for the song "Plantage" by Danish sensation "Under Byen". Small world, isn't it? (Just like Samorost's).
Posted by daen at 03:53 AM
January 06, 2006
Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.
Philip K. Dick
Posted by daen at 12:11 PM